On a dank and rainy day in New York City, a basketball game is about to tip off. Well, not an actual game. Jason Derulo and a tiny entourage are sitting around a television inside Warner Music’s midtown Manhattan headquarters as NBA 2K15 spins in an Xbox. “I’ll take Harden,” Derulo yells out, hoping to bag the Houston Rockets’ shooting guard – and if his virtual basketball skills are anything like his penchant for churning out hits, he’ll have no problem on the court.
His latest single, the energetic pop anthem Want to Want Me, hit No 1 in the UK and became his sixth top 10 hit on the charts in US as well. That rate means that his music has become wallpaper in gyms and clubs and on smartphones all over the country, so much so that Derulo himself finds it difficult to avoid.
“When I hear one of my songs in a club it’s cool, but it’s kind of glorified because everyone looks at you,” he notes. “When they come on in a gym, I feel like a normal person. There’s a lot of older people at my gym and they have no idea; so when one of my songs come on for some reason I’m like, ‘Oh shit, let’s go!’” However, that’s not the most exciting place for him to hear his songs. “That would be in an elevator, man! If you made it to the elevator, you made it.”
A native of Miami, Florida, Derulo has been a ubiquitous part of the pop radio landscape (elevators included) since 2009. That’s when his debut single, the bubbly and slightly weird Whatcha Say, which samples an Imogen Heap track, shot to No 1. Setting himself apart from the pack thanks to his audio ident – which is simply Derulo singing his own name – he soon turned into a household name. Follow-up singles Ridin’ Solo and In My Head also topped the charts. It seemed as if Derulo’s success was in no danger of waning – until it did. His 2011 sophomore album Future History underperformed, and suddenly it seemed like his staying power as an artist was in jeopardy – a three-hit wonder, or a part of pop past to be forgotten and relegated to compilation albums made up of hits of the late 00s. Then things got really bad.
“I was prepping for my world tour, which involved a lot of acrobatics during my performance,” he remembers. “One day I was fatigued and tired, and I slipped and bailed – which you’re not ever supposed to do.” Derulo wound up falling on his neck and heard a crack. “I laid on the ground and the paramedics there were like, ‘Yeah, you probably just tore the ligaments.’ So I got up and walked to the car to meet my mother and we went to the hospital. When I got there, the doctor was like, ‘You broke your neck and you’re lucky to be alive.’”
Derulo narrowly escaped paralysis and the injury was exacerbated by the fact he wasn’t brought to the hospital on a stretcher. “On the ride there, every single bump was hell. I could have killed myself by even just getting up, because my shit was not attached.”
After canceling his tour, Derulo went into a six-month period filled with intense pain and self-reflection. On the other side of it, he developed an entirely different outlook on life. “It was totally life-changing,” he says. “I was in a brace for seven months and couldn’t even do the simple things by myself – like take a shower or take off my shirt.”
It was this dark period that influenced Derulo’s comeback album, first called Tattoos and later re-released as Talk Dirty, including the smash single of the same name, as well as dance anthem The Other Side, romantic ode Marry Me, and a collaboration with Snoop Dogg, Wiggle.
“All those party songs on Talk Dirty stemmed from my accident,” he points out. “I could have died. The injury made me realize that life is short, man. You have to live life to the fullest, and all of those songs are about enjoying life.”
Enjoying life is a running theme for Derulo these days, and that includes having a nonstop schedule. Besides the release of his new album, Everything is 4 (out this week on Beluga Heights and Atlantic Records), he also joined the ranks of the new season of the hit Fox series So You Think You Can Dance as a judge. “I had performed on the show last year and had the time of my life,” says Derulo, whose dancing skills are just as vital to him as an artist as his voice. “When they asked me about joining, I knew it was going to be a big commitment. But it’s the best decision I’ve made. I love the show.”
A big commitment is an understatement. Along with his duties filming the show, he’s currently juggling album promotion (he just got back from Germany), and tour prep (dates for a nationwide jaunt are slated for fall), not to mention an intense workout routine, the fruits of which found him shirtless on the cover of a recent issue of Billboard Magazine. “I squeeze in a workout every day,” he says, noting he favors Insanity, the sweaty routine that lives up to its name. “There’s no set schedule, so I’ll do it whenever I have time. I couldn’t yesterday because I was flying back from Europe.” So, no workouts on the plane? “I guess I could have tightened my abs walking through the airport.”
With everything going on in Derulo’s life and his recent ups and downs, it’s no wonder he dubbed the album Everything is 4, which has multilayered meaning. “Besides it being my fourth album, the number four is a number that follows us around,” he says. “There are four legs on a chair, four legs on a table, so it’s about having a strong foundation. There’s also four seasons, which represents accepting change and moving forward. Also, it means everything is for a reason. Everything is for my mom, everything is for my family, everything is for my fans. It represents completion.”
